


Strip the Insulation

by Hageny



Category: Bedannibal - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2016-07-01
Packaged: 2018-07-19 11:29:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7359451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hageny/pseuds/Hageny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bedelia and Hannibal ponder whether or not an injured bird should be allowed to survive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strip the Insulation

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick piece I came up with before work. Nothing fancy.

He feels slightly perturbed when he enters the kitchen, though the feeling passes easily and quickly, and is replaced by a feeling of warm curiosity as he regards his wife on the other side of the counter, and the caged bird that sits between the two of them.  
“The sparrow,” she says, a wine glass cupped within her hand, “found itself on our countertop after it made an unfortunately powerful impact against our bedroom window this morning. As you can see it is…deeply scarred, but struggling for life.”  
Hannibal made no reply, but moved his eyes from his wife to the little bird that sat humbly in its confines, wing obviously broken, a look of sadness dotting the landscape of its tiny face.  
He met her eyes again.  
“One must admire the way these small, delicate creatures struggle humbly for strength, even in the face of great adversity. His wing is, perhaps, irreversibly damaged, and yet he displays an admirable inclination toward survival” he says, smiling at her.  
Her face is, predictably, unchanged by the warmth of his expression. She knows this smile, not exactly one of warmth or affection. He sees the game, and is accepting her challenge, reading all the lines to a play that is still in production. How typical.  
“You’d let him survive, even at a cost to you” she replies.  
“What cost is it to me to house a creature whose strength does not nearly meet my own?”  
“You’d create for yourself an inconvenience. To provide shelter to something weaker than yourself, something which can reap all the reward of the resources you provide without contributing anything to its environment. Or to you.”  
“And you wouldn’t, Bedelia?”  
“You’d let him live.”  
“You brought him in.”  
Bedelia sets her jaw in anger, and places her wine glass on the counter behind her.  
“He made a space for himself by force, hurtling himself against the window. Cold creeps in in spite of insulation.”  
“As does weakness.”  
“And yet you allow it to exist.”  
“Have you insulated yourself, Bedelia?”  
She pauses, and smiles rather coolly at Hannibal. “Yes.”  
“Then why am I here?”  
A look of shock passes briefly over Bedelia’s face, one that she tries desperately to conceal. She thinks the practice is pointless anyway, where Hannibal is concerned.  
“The things that make us weak are not necessarily weaker, Bedelia. Is the cold weaker than warmth simply because we keep it out? Or does it not rage on in spite of us?”  
“Is the sparrow as strong as the stag just because he exists alongside him?”  
“Even sparrows have their place in this world” Hannibal says softly. “Will you further insulate to keep me out, Dr. Du Maurier?”  
Tears sting Bedelia’s solemn blue eyes as she gazes at the man with whom she has nestled so comfortably into convention.  
“I had hoped that you would find yourself so comfortable in my warmth that you would realize that you could kill the sparrow, at no loss to you.” She blinks, and swallows her sadness. “Now I wonder why we insulate at all, when the cold has no real interest in remaining anyway.”  
Bedelia moves from her place behind the counter and passes Hannibal. She is a shadow in the doorway when he finally speaks.  
“The cold always returns, even though it leaves each year. Warmth is what it always desires anyway.” He does not turn to face her.  
Bedelia swallow heavily, and as she leaves the room she says, “Set him free, Hannibal. Nurse him back to health, and set him free.”

~~~~

One month later Bedelia is crossing the floor of their bedroom when she sees the cage on her dressing table, with a note inside. 

'The cold will come early this year. Are you insulated, or will you welcome me?  
The sparrow lives to see another year as well. He will fly to wherever he finds refuge; his life is at no cost to us.  
The stag remains in Florence. Warmth has always been what he desires.'

Bedelia touches her wedding ring, and cries for the first time in a long time.  
Winter comes early that year, and she relishes its touch.


End file.
